


Under the Moons of Darillium: Part 6 Journey To The Crystal Layer

by Stardance1



Series: Under the Moons of Darillium: A Night of Adventures [6]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio), The Diary of River Song (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: Doctor Who References, F/M, Post-Episode: 2015 Xmas The Husbands of River Song, Singing Towers of Darillium
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-07 07:22:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16403882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stardance1/pseuds/Stardance1
Summary: River and the Doctor are kicking-off their honeymoon adventures on Darillium. Where else would they start but at the fabled underground center of the Singing Towers, the Crystal Layer Caves? The caves are filled with crystals yes, but also darkness and strange creatures. Even as they capture River and the Doctor, they are left to wonder, are these creatures villains or are they only in need of a rescue?





	Under the Moons of Darillium: Part 6 Journey To The Crystal Layer

**Author's Note:**

> Please note that this is Part 6 of a Series.

Having slept for many hours, River awoke with a slow spreading smile on her face.  
She rolled onto her back with a lazy yawn, stretching her arms up over her head and pushing her legs straight out.  
Then without so much as opening her eyes, she turned her arm to feel for the Doctor at his pillow.  
Her fingertips brushed the soft coolness of his pillowcase, her pointed toes brushed the empty hollow of his side of the bed.  
Strange. He wasn’t there.  
Perplexed she opened exactly one bemused eye.  
There he was, standing next to the bed, a charmed look on his face and a small smirk on his lips.  
He held two cups of coffee, and sat down at the edge of the bed, next to her.  
She sat up, smiling, still refusing to open both eyes, and eagerly accepted the hot mug.  
“How shall we spend the day, Wife?", the Doctor inquired, crooking one of his eyebrows at her. "Newly married couples should have a proper honeymoon."  
“Come back to bed Doctor.” River coaxed, slowly batting both of her eyelashes at him over the rim of her cup. "We’ve been married over 150 years in my timeline, eons more in yours."  
"Exactly, and it’s just the beginning…" the Doctor said as he bopped her nose, "so we don’t want to be boring.”  
River laughed. "What do you have planned Doctor?”  
“Excitement, adventure, unspoiled beauty.” His hand reached out involuntarily and tangled itself in one of her curls.  
River blew softly at the steam from her cup, and raised her eyes to his… “I think that we can find all of those right here…” she responded with a coy shrug.  
“And a trip, a journey to the crystal layer of Darillium.”  
“To see the heart of the singing towers?”  
“I know how much you love them.”  
River put her empty coffee cup on the bedside table, next to her Darillium diary.  
She reached out both of her hands and used the Doctor’s pajama shirt to tug him toward her, bringing his face to hers, she whispered against his lips. “There are lots of things that I love…”  
He chortled softly, “Come on River, get dressed, we can be ready to leave in 10 minutes.”  
River brushed her lips softly, back and forth against his, “So close to the perfect sentence.”  
“You always say that,” the Doctor said, the smirk returning to his face. He stood up and leaned down to kiss her briefly before planning on departing to go get himself ready.  
And he did just that, 10 times 10 minutes later, after finally being convinced that River was fully ready to get out of bed.  
_______________________________ 

Knowing they’d be in for quite a trek through the layers of Darillium, they each dressed casually in appropriate adventuring attire.  
River emerged first, in simple denim trousers with a fitted denim jacket, layered over an attractive dual-colored scaled cowlneck pullover hoodie, in charcoal black and red.  
When the Doctor joined her, he was attired in one of his soft rust colored shirt and hoodie combos, topped off with a corduroy jacket that extended close to half way to his knees. River admired how long and imposing he looked in his jackets as he walked over to her while she did some meal prep in the kitchen, and when he gently put his arm around her waist, she momentarily leaned her head on his chest.  
Then she immediately made plans to nick this hoodie upon their return. It would definitely work to lounge around the Tardis in nothing else but, she thought her cheek stroking the softness of the material.  
“One good romp deserves another!”, she said to herself out-loud.  
“Hmm?” the Doctor replied, pretending not to understand her fully, but the corners of his mouth tugged against his will into a smile.  
She stepped up on her tippy toes and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Nothing Dearest…” she replied with a secretive smile, and then got back to work in the kitchen. River had started a simple pancake breakfast. She mixed and flipped and the Doctor caught and plated. They sat down at their corner table and the Doctor began to tell her more about his plans for their outing…  
“Like a lot of planets, there is a crystal layer deep in Darillium,” he said, "The crystals beneath the singing towers are accessible through cave systems and underground cisterns used by the the first Darillium colonists. As you know, the generally accepted theory is that the wind passes under one tower, through these chambers and hits the crystals, before traveling back out through the other tower, infused with song.”  
“How will we get down there, Doctor?” River asked, as she finished off the last bite of her Tardis shaped pancake.  
“I got our old canoe out of storage this morning River… I thought we could hike down and ride into the caves like that…”  
“The one that we used on our white water rafting trip in the Gamma Forests?” River clapped excitedly.  
“That’s the one…”  
“I loved that trip, the rushing waters, the delicate balance of the vessel…” River bit her bottom lip in anticipation.  
“Oh, I know what you enjoyed... and we’ll think on that later…”  
“Spoilsport!”  
They both laughed, and River turned away to smile deviously to herself, knowing full well she’d be victorious in the end.  
They both then stood up to clear away their dishes, and then set themselves about the console to move the Tardis from the top of the tower to the ground below.  
___________________ 

Neither River nor the Doctor had previously ventured this close to the Singing Towers.  
At the foot of the Towers, with the many moons of Darillium overhead and clear skies stretching before them, River and the Doctor stood in awe of the beauty of this place.  
Here it was not covered by sand or snow like other parts of the desert were, where River and the Doctor had ventured.  
Rather they were on smooth organically shaped boulders, that seemed to stretch under the moonlight like an ocean’s wave. The stones were tens of meters high and twice as wide, each fitted to the other like a careful jigsaw puzzle that had had its jagged edges smoothed and rounded by the close rustle of wind.  
Each stone was like a profiterole, drizzled with a unique pattern of white swirl, like a giant map of the galaxies.  
The Doctor saw an opening in the stone pattern ahead, where he could safely descend the Tardis further down to the ground below, and he gently took River’s hand in his and led her back onto the boat.  
A quick switch flip and lever pull had them at the base of the boulders, plummeted into darkness.  
River emerged from the Tardis holding two Dalek eyestalk torches she’d mounted onto long chains, so that she and the Doctor could wear around their necks.  
“River where on earth did you get these?!” the Doctor asked incredulously, and a bit crossly.  
“I picked them up at the Dalek Base at Spiridon when I was rescuing a group of people from suspended animation. Actually I took Nardole with me, as I suspected he might be partly Spirdonian, since he is always fretting about his invisible hair.” River said smiling, then flicked the switched on the Doctor’s eye stalk revealing the lamp feature.  
“That sounds unbelievably foolish.” In this light she looked so heartbreakly perfect, confident and … amazing.  
“I learned from the best Darling!” River responded with a chuckle as she then switched on her own lamp.  
The Doctor sighed but said no more, really how could he defend himself against that. For a moment he was again torn between the urge to scold her and try to convince her not to follow in his footsteps, to find a way to save her from the fatal screams and sacrifice at the Library, or to surrender and cherish every second that they had left on this ticking time bomb of a life.  
He chose the latter. He pulled her in, holding her pinned by both arms at her sides, and kissed her deeply.  
She looked up at him, her eyes filled with startled confusion and love.  
She smiled, “I thought hands free torches would help on this adventure.”  
“Right as rain, River, right as rain! as always...” he bopped her nose.  
“Thank you, Sweetie.”  
They both picked up their lit torches and looked around.  
They were surrounded by a causeway of hexagonal stones, laid so perfectly it was almost like finely laid cobblestone.  
“They’re interlocking basalt columns,” the Doctor said with a grin, and then he winked at River, “They’re just the tops here, but I’ve heard they are even more breathtaking inside.”  
“Then let’s get going Doctor.”  
“One moment…” he pointed his eyestalk down a bit, and found the shimmering answer he was looking for…the start of the stream. 

__________________________ 

From the Tardis, the Doctor pulled out their long tandem paddler canoe, and attempted to carry it himself with a leather tumpline, but River insisted on helping and instead they both carried it overhead the 50 yards or so to the beginning of the stream.  
It was Tardis blue on the outside, and had beautifully inlaid cedar strips inside, in the handmade tradition of the people of the Gamma Forest. The craftsmanship was remarkable. It had been presented as an honorary gift to the Doctor and he had loved exploring the namesake rivers of that planet with River. The vessel was twice the length of the Doctor, with two small wooden seats, and two thwarts. Once they’d placed it down in the water, they got in, first River, taking the bow seat while the Doctor stabilized the canoe and then took the stern seat for himself.  
Each holding a wooden paddle, carved beautifully with patterns of leaves, they began to stroke forward in unison, toward the opening of the caves ahead.  
Below them, even in relative darkness, they could see that the water was crystal clear.  
River shone her torch light down, and it seemed to hit the bottom and bounce back up, creating a sort of translucent light cloud above them.  
It was beautiful.  
“This stream is called the Iona,” the Doctor said softly, as though not to disturb the peace around them, “and we should be able to take it directly through the Crystal Staffa Caves.”  
The running stream glided the canoe without resistance over the water, deeper into the cave. There both River and the Doctor gasped as the light from their lamps was hungrily absorbed by blue glacial pillars of ice, reflected back into the space, and then cascaded onto purple amethyst crystals that dotted the rocks all around them.  
They turned a small bend, and more magnesium rich basalts came into view, towering columns from the ground up high to the ceilings.  
“Doctor, the Singing Towers and these columns must be related. They must have been formed when the planet was formed, from the original volcanic eruptions that brought this planet to life…. I’ve never seen such… perfect geometric construction...”  
“The stones are perfect hexagons,” the Doctor agreed, "and look at the carved arches and intricate carvings on the walls. This must be leading to the crafted underground cistern.”  
As they paddled on, the sound of their strokes suddenly began to echo back, like the acoustics of an ancient amphitheater.  
“Look over there Doctor, do those appear to be seats carved into the stone walls?”  
“Yes River, this must have been some kind of performance or practice hall…"  
“Or perhaps even used for prayer. I’ll bet the music from the singing towers sounds positively heavenly here.”  
As they passed through the Cistern, rather than follow the natural path of the stream, the Doctor steered them toward a narrow opening off to the left.  
“The road less traveled, the long way around” whispered River with a smile, knowing the Doctor’s habits all too well.  
____________________________ 

In the next cave, the amethyst crystals had grown longer, thicker, and more haphazardly than past caves. They were the thickness of large tree trunks, and burst forth in every direction, crisscrossing from ground to ceiling and vice versa. When the light shone on them, they glowed like lavender beams.  
The Doctor again deviated the path of the canoe, moving them toward another cave system. There seemed to be endless paths to explore down here, and he was eager to look around, and allow River the chance to revel in the environs.  
The offshoot stream’s undercurrent pushed them slowly into an enormous cavern, filled with so many crystals the ceiling hung heavy and low with them.  
River laughed as they floated through the dark chamber, and she stretched out her hands toward the ceiling, trying to see if she could reach the crystals with her fingertips.  
The light from their lamps would catch on the prism ends, and cast quivering fractal beads of light, bouncing back and forth, like an endless sea of falling stars.  
The water and crystals were so close together that everything seemed to mirror back, until you could almost forget which side was up and which was down. This reflection, a bulb of light and life floating in vast darkness, created the illusion of being engulfed in the sparkle and expanse of intergalactic space.  
The same thought struck the Doctor and River in unison, yet neither said a word, both being content to just float slowly through the cavern. They lay their paddles quietly down, and looked around in awe.  
Had they attempted to speak, both would have found their voices caught in their throat.  
They always defied the odds, the Doctor and River, yet again floating through space.  
The Doctor was the first to act.  
He gingerly moved, maintaining the balance of the vessel as he stepped over the thwarts, and knelt down behind River.  
She gasped, from both from surprise and pleasure as his arms stole around her.  
She had been cold she realized, and he was so warm. She placed her arms over his, and leaned back onto his chest.  
The Doctor pulled her slightly off of the bow seat, relishing her weight on his chest, the perfume of her hair all around him. He bent his head down and covered her mouth with his.  
River adjusted her position, twisting slightly and turning back to meet his kiss. She wrapped her arms around the Doctor’s neck, then moved both of her hands into his hair. She pulled him closer to her, deepening their kiss.  
The Doctor’s hands, free to roam, caressed her torso. He spread his fingers under her shirt collar, brushing her shoulder and the soft curve of her breasts. His hand paused at her throat and he moaned at the soft rhythmic throbbing of her hearts against his skin.  
His River, so alive, so immutable.  
His lips, his tongue, his fingers, became fervent in their veneration of her body.  
River slid down his chest, sinking into his lap, steading herself by holding each side of the canoe with her hands.  
When she couldn’t bear another moment. She pulled herself back up into her seat, pealed off her jeans and jacket, and pulled off her hoodie.  
She climbed into his lap and straddled his waist, pulling his coat free of his arms and running her hands under his shirt and up across his chest.  
Then she pushed him back, against the thwart, as she unbuttoned his trousers and climbed onto the firmness of his desire.  
Leaning forward she kissed him, as deeply and passionately as he had been kissing her.  
Every vibration, every quiver, every gasp of breath, adjusted the balance of the boat.  
The canoe swayed under them, jolting them with irrepressible pleasure each time it pitched and rolled over the water.  
River, flung her leg over the thwart and used it to plunge the Doctor deeper into her body.  
Laced together like a bowtie, their bodies twisted and tangled.  
The Doctor hoisted her bottom, his fingers firmly pressing into her skin as he rocked her back and forth, in and out.  
River moved her other leg over the thwart and held the Doctor’s shoulders as she trailed kisses up to his neck and his cheek, stopping only to suck on his earlobe and trail her tongue over the rim of his outer ear.  
In an effort to keep herself from floating away, River gripped the edges of the canoe until her knuckles had blanched. Meanwhile, the Doctor unyieldingly devoured her breasts, taking into his mouth as much of her as he could, grazing his tongue continuously across her nipples. She screamed out as they both ascended to this apex together.  
Throwing her head back and shaking out her curls, she held the Doctor’s head lovingly to her chest as they both tried to find their breath.  
But when she finally pulled her legs down and sat back up on the bow seat, a sudden feeling of dread washed over her, noise made her catch her breath and turn around.  
Another sudden noise from the other direction caught the Doctor’s attention, and he carefully stood up in the canoe and looked around.  
River stood up next to him and cast her torch lamp light to the sides of the cavern.  
They were not alone.  
River and the Doctor both sharply drew in their breath at the sight that surrounded them… all around the edges of this stream stood mammoth sized birds with their eyes fixated on them.  
________________________________ 

The birds were gigantic, possibly the full height of the Tardis (in general police box mode anyway).  
Their beaks were curved and sharp, their bodies covered in golden yellow feathers, and their faces and eyes were a piercing blue-black, almost indistinguishable the one from the other resulting in a face that looked absent,... missing,... gone. When they extended their wings to flap them about, River and the Doctor could feel the stirred up wind across the stream. Their throaty croaks echoing back and forth to each other, buzzed loudly in River and the Doctor’s ears.  
River put her hands up and addressed them, apologetically.  
"Oh dear. Um, well yes, of course we NEVER would have behaved like that if we had thought that we were disturbing anyone. We’re not always so loud. Please go back to your hibernation."  
Behind her the Doctor lost his fight to keep a straight face. He laughed helplessly and nervously and passed her his corduroy jacket, as she was still quite naked.  
She put on the jacket, and then swatted him.  
"Shut up, before you make them mad!"  
“River! Come on, you’re going to make them mad with those lies. Don’t try to feign shyness now, they’ve just watched you remember…"  
One of the largest birds flew lowly under the canopy of crystals, toward the canoe where the Doctor and River stood. While they watched, it landed on the bow deck and raised his head up to the ceiling, while bellowing a shrieking squawk.  
With the added weight and the sudden unbalanced distribution, the boat rocked violently, upsetting the stability of the canoe and flipping River and the Doctor into the cold icy stream water.  
Arms flailing, River and the Doctor found each other in the frigid water. The canoe had drifted impossibly far away in the other direction, and the Doctor needed to get the mostly naked River out of the freezing water.  
He pulled her to the edge of the stream and immediately rubbed her arms and back to try to warm her.  
Both River and the Doctor were visibly shivering. River cast off the Doctor’s now soaked jacket on a large rock, and tried to wring the water out of her hair.  
“I thought caves were supposed to be warm!” she complained  
“It is relatively warmer than the surface where this water would certainly be frozen, plus we knew that the Singing Tower caves would be open to wind.”  
“Of course I know that, I just needed to gripe for a moment! And Doctor, get out of those wet clothes before you freeze to death!”  
But the squawking of the creatures, the simultaneous rustling of wings, and the shrill screech of dozens of shuffling talons on the stone waterfront, made another shiver run up River’s spine.  
Instinctively, she scrambled in front of the Doctor to protect him. She put her hands in front of her as she tried to calmly forstall the now crowding birds’ advance.  
Behind her the Doctor surveyed the rocky bank, finding what he hoped would be a foot path out of here, he discarded the most disheveled bits of clothing, grabbed River’s hand and pulled her into a run. Without their torches, they did their best to search for some form of egress.  
But the further they moved, the darker it became until all they could do was desperately feel the rock wall for an opening.  
With a small gasp, River’s foot slipped on an incline and she fell backwards, sliding down sharp jagged stone and crystal, finally landing in a stockpile of feathers and twigs and leaves and other cuttings of Darillium florae.  
Horrified, the Doctor jumped after her, desperate to make sure that she was alright.  
She was half covered in vegetation. She tried to sit up, but the Doctor hushed her to be still. He laid down quietly next to her and tried to conceal her with his body. Above them the birds were running and scattering in the heat of the search.  
The Doctor was wearing only his trousers, having removed his shirt and hoodie earlier.  
The heat from the Doctor’s chest and the cushion of vegetative waste began insulating River from the cold, helping her body began to reclaim its warmth.  
She was slowly coming out of shock.  
She looked up and in the darkness tried to read his face.  
He felt her forehead, and sighed softly as he caressed her cheek with his thumb.  
He didn’t want to open a mental link and over strain her if she was too frail.  
He pressed his pointer finger to her lips.  
“River,” he whispered in a barely audible voice, “I have to check you to see where you’re hurt. Don’t make a sound, don’t move a muscle.”  
She ever so slightly nodded her deference.  
The Doctor’s hands slowly, gently, searched her body for injury. In his mind he imagined her standing there, tried to imagine where her limbs would be. He was grateful he could lie next to her, to do his utmost in keeping her exposed body warm. So far he only found minor cuts and scrapes, but he became alarmed as he reached the backside of her right thigh. It was hot and sticky, immediately he knew it must be coated in her blood.  
Ever so delicately he felt around and touched the border of a profoundly deep gash and felt her involuntarily pull away from the subsequent sharp pain. She was was bleeding, profusely, and he needed to help her right away.  
A flurry of squawks from above saw long vines and tall prairie grasses rain down on them.  
It was exactly what the Doctor ordered.  
He gently shushed River again and then covered her injured leg with as much of the surrounding debris as he could; trying to muffle the force of the healing light energy that would soon be radiating from that area.  
Realization dawned on her and she tried to shake her head, but he was too fast and determined.  
He placed his two hands in circumference around her thigh and began to heal her with regeneration energy.  
It spread like liquid fire through her veins, first searing her thigh and sealing the cut, and then dispersing throughout her back and and arms, mending the worst.  
With the light emitting from the regeneration energy, however briefly, they were able to catch a glimpse of where they’d landed. It was a deep cut out in the rock wall, maybe 10 or 15 feet below stream level.  
There were drawings on the cave walls. And like most cave walls in the Universe, the drawings usually pointed to children’s drawings, hand prints, depictions of civilization and life alongside these birds.  
Before the energy finished restoring River and the light faded away, they could also see the immensity of the chamber. It must have stretched at least 8 thousand square feet.  
Suddenly the deafening sound of flapping wings belonging to dozens of birds, tens of dozens, filled the air. The Doctor again covered River’s body quickly with his own body, and all around them, the large birds descended down, clustering together.  
Confirmation then.  
This was their makeshift nest, and the Doctor and River suddenly found themselves the unexpected bedfellows. 

_________________________ 

“I don’t think they mean us any harm.” River whispered to the Doctor, a good 30 minutes later after she was sure the feather fluffing and roosting were settled and the birds had started their sleep cycle. “The cave drawings show them living alongside early Darillium colonists….”  
But the Doctor pretended not to hear her. He just wanted to ascertain that she was recovered. He again checked her forehead, her heartbeats, and the locus of the cut on her thigh. She was surprisingly well considering how little regenerative energy he’d spent. Since he didn’t know how the birds would react to the light or locating them, he had to be much briefer than he would have liked.  
“River, how do you feel, can you move?”  
River who had been laying still since her fall, partially buried under vegetation clippings and all matter nesting fluff, finally tried to move.  
She tried to sit up, and did manage to a little, but she couldn’t move her left arm. It seemed to be snagged on something slightly above her head.  
“Doctor, my arm is stuck, and I can’t see on what.”  
The Doctor moved over to her side and pulled the sonic screwdriver out of the back pocket of his trousers.  
“It seems to be in some kind of plant sap and disc pod from a vine cutting…” the Doctor ever so quickly scanned her arm with the sonic and then listened to the reading. He nodded. “It’s a type of creeper vine that has attached itself to you, the goop is part of its adhesive disc that is trying to ensure it can climb on the smoothness of your skin.”  
“Can you get me out?”  
Instead of responding, the Doctor pointed the sonic at her right arm and zapped her, a nearby vine slithered around her right wrist and forearm.  
The Doctor smiled.  
“Doctor!” River whispered alarmed, “Now I can’t move either hand!”  
He laid down next to her, bent his knees and crossed his legs casually, comically relaxed.  
“River, do you remember when we went to that harvest festival on the Giant Loom Planet because you wanted a rug for the bedroom, and I was captured and woven into a living tapestry?"  
“Yes?"  
"Do you remember what you did when you found me?"  
He couldn’t see her eyes, but he knew they’d widened… "Yes!?!"  
He rolled to her side, bringing his lips in direct contact with her ear. A shiver of excitement passed through her back… and he whispered in her ear…., "So do I….”  
“Doctor, I don’t think…"  
She wouldn’t be able to think in another moment, because the Doctor moved his two hands to River’s face and turned it toward his. He held it between his hands as he began to kiss her.  
River pulls at both of her arms, wanting to hold the Doctor, wanting to wrap her arms around him, but not able to budge.  
Beneath her, her legs squirmed, trying to reach him, trying to wrap her legs around him and roll him on top of her.  
But she can’t quite reach him.  
His hands move, caressing her bare skin, brushing the plant debris off of her slowly and seductively. He trails kisses down her abdomen before he does roll on top of her.  
But he’s rolled low on her body. She can’t kiss him, or see him, but she can feel his warm breath on the skin of her abdomen. Feel his hands steady her hips.  
He nestles down between her legs, and doesn’t begin just licking into her, but she can feel his lips moving against the folds of her sex, his tongue plunging into her, his breath inside her, melting her, moving and tasting and imbibing from her.  
River gasps at the pleasure but knows she can’t make a sound.  
His mouth closes around her, suctioning into a seal with his lips, and his moist firm tongue continues its internal onslaught.  
She pulls helplessly at the restraints which keep her bound and then again uses her legs, this time successfully, to hold the Doctor to her.. to try to coax the Doctor back up to her face so that she could foray her tongue into his mouth with the same passion he was showing her.  
Understanding, the Doctor moves toward her face, but pauses to lay kisses over her body.  
Then their lips meet and there is such an electrified jolt that River actually succeed at pulling herself free from the vines.  
She immediately wraps her arms around the Doctor’s neck and pulls him closer.  
He moves his hands to unfasten his trousers and expertly twists free, with River’s wrapped legs around his waist, and her arms around his neck, he slowly sinks the full length of his erection into her. She let’s her head drop back and just savors the feel of his rhythm as he repeatedly pulls out and then slowly fills her again, each time succeeding at filling her more, at joining even closer to her.  
She feels the spasms of climax begin to take over his body, and she surrenders to the same wave of longing.  
She almost screams out his name, and he has to muffle it with his mouth.  
They lie there, naked together, shifted onto their sides but River’s arms still around his neck.  
After a while, when their breathing returns to normal, the Doctor places a tender kiss on her nose.  
They still have to speak in the tiniest whispers.  
“River?”  
“Hmm?”  
“Just out of curiosity, can you unwrap your arms from my neck?”  
“Not in the slightest.”  
“I didn’t think so… the plant adhesive is now across your forearms and my neck is that right.”  
“Absolutely.”  
“Ok then, just so I have the details as I plan for our escape…”  
“Are you excluding me from the planning?”  
“Your arms are currently restrained around my neck!”  
“I would be useful with both arms and legs tied behind my back, and I have been!”  
The Doctor gives her a look but of course in complete darkness it’s wasted.  
“River, are your fingers free?”  
“Yes, on my right hand.”  
The Doctor hands her the sonic. “Hold on while I put on my pants.”  
“I can’t exactly let go…”  
“Wrap your legs around me as well, I’m going to put on my trousers, then stand up and try to make it to the retaining wall to climb back up to stream level…. Ever so slightly, use the sonic to light the way. See if there is an easier way for us to get to the top and try to tell me where the birds are so that we can avoid them. If you can, also notice their eyes. Birds can literally sleep with one eye open looking for predators or movement. The more both eyes are closed, the deeper sleep their brains are in.”  
“Got it.” River said, and ever so gently pressed the sonic to try to acclimatize herself to the where the birds were and where they needed to go.  
As the Doctor stood up, holding River with her arms and legs tightly wrapped around him, she whispered in his ear…  
"If we go to your left 10 paces and turn and then make another left, we’ll only pass three birds, and then there appears to be some kind of stone ramp back to the stream level.”  
The Doctor nodded, understanding.  
And then they set off.  
He has his arm wrapped around River’s waist, and he tries to walk carefully, knowing if they fall, at least it should be cushioned by the plant rubble.  
In the darkness he can make out the shapes of the birds as he passes them, and he can hear the sharp ding of the sonic as River tries to check their eyes.  
Finally his foot finds the ramp up, and they ascend.  
Immediately the soft glow of the Dalek eyestalk lamps is visible, lighting a path toward the stream shore.  
The Doctor walks briskly, knowing they don’t have too much time to escape.  
“River, I’m sorry about this…”  
“What?!?” she exclaims, just a second before he plunges them back into the freezing stream waters.  
As soon as the water touched her arms, the plant sap began to dissolve and she was free.  
They both emerged back to the shore, shivering.  
River sighs, sitting down, once again naked, cold and wet. “Here we are again!”  
The Doctor walks over to the rock where she had laid his jacket earlier and finds it tolerably dry.  
He places it around her shoulders.  
“River, I think the canoe has reached the other side of the stream, it seems marooned on some kind of bank near the edge. I think we should be able to find a path around the embankment."  
They began to walk the long path around the rocks and crystals. 

________________________________ 

“Doctor, I really don’t think they meant to harm us. They just didn’t want us to leave. Who are they, do you know?”  
They were a little ways away from the roost by now, but the Doctor didn’t want to risk them waking.  
“River, can’t we talk about this later.”  
River stopped dead in her tracks, and shook her head to herself. She knew that voice. He was sad, upset, tortured by something. She wouldn’t budge until he said what.  
As soon as he didn’t hear her walking behind him, he knew that she’d sensed it. That he’d have to answer.  
He sighed. They knew each other too well at times.  
He turned around to answer her.  
“They want friendship River, camaraderie. They want us to stay and they don’t know how else to keep us here than by force. We need to go because I don’t know how they’ll react to us escaping.”  
“What do you mean Doctor, why keep us here, what could we offer them.”  
The Doctor smiled sadly, “Do you know what happened, on Earth, with the Purple Martins?"  
River shrugged, "They were birds in America, that were … domesticated maybe?”  
"People in America would hang gourds for them, dried out gourds, annually so that the Purple Martins could nest. Children and adults would run around stringing gourds up so that the Purple Martins would have a home. And slowly over the years, the Purple Martins simply forget how to live anywhere else. They loved it. They loved it so much that as the generations passed, they had no idea how to build their own shelter, and no desire to live without humans. The worse part was they did not stay in America year round, they’d fly down to South America, to Brazil, during their migration. But rather than go into the rain forest, or what was left of it, they’d congregate in huge numbers in the cities. And people hated them there, they’d chase them, hunt them, throw stones at them, and try drive them away. Every migration their numbers would dwindle more and more and they’d become confused by the actions of their friends. Then in the 24th century, after the slaughter of almost half their largest colony in Sao Paulo, some of the birds turned on the people. They brought down power lines, actually caused the explosion of a power plant, attacked people, dropped coconuts, anything they could to retaliate, only to have people attack back and drive them to extinction. The worst part is that a large group of them never attacked, they were just waiting for their gourds and their friendly human caretakers to look after them. But in the end they were also slaughtered.”  
“They were made to be dependent, and then they were abandoned?”  
"I suspect the same thing happened here River. These birds share the characteristics of weaver birds, you can tell by their beaks and by the vegetation they gathered. We saw them flying near the Singing Towers when we first arrived on Darillium, I remember you pointed them out in flight. We never saw them again after that because they came down here when evening fell and they haven’t emerged since. I suspect that the first colonists, those that lived in these caves, would use them to help gather food, nuts and seeds. During the long nights on Darillium, they’d share warmth and food…. They are native to this world, but they’ve forgotten how to migrate, forgotten how to weave their nests. They should be migrating with the light, moving to the other side of Darillium, but they’ve forgotten how. There’s not that many left, and I doubt they have enough food to last this whole night."  
"Doctor, we can’t leave these birds here!” River reached out and held his hand, "You and I know, we know what it’s like to be alone, to be left behind, to be left waiting for something or someone that isn’t going to come back. They deserve a chance at light."  
“River, you and I can’t go to the other side of Darillium… We can’t help them. I won’t risk losing you for this.”  
River jerked her hand away angrily. "Then we’re already lost ourselves."

The Doctor ignored her and tried to change the subject. "I was following small seams of silver and minerals here, I think I can follow similar signs back out….” He looked at her firmly and reached out to take her hand. "Come on River, let’s go…:  
“No!” 

Behind them a sudden noise made them turn their heads.  
It wasn’t the Tardis engine, but the cloister bell, and River recognized it a second before the Doctor.  
She took off in a run and made it over.  
The Doctor ran after her, but was only in time to see her run into the still materializing Tardis.  
Of course the door was open for her and closed firmly behind her.  
He reached out to push the door open, then he tried to pull. It wouldn’t budge.  
He quietly knocked, “River, come out and talk!"  
Suddenly he began to panic, without him River would certainly try to break the rules. If she left this night to travel to the other side of the planet, he had no idea what would happen. She’d be risking it all. Everything they had left.  
Sleeping dogs be damned, he had to do everything he could to convince her. He began to pound on the door, forgetting he needed to be quiet, forgetting what else was sleeping just around the bend.  
He didn’t even notice when all around him very large birds had woken up and were now surrounding him and the Tardis.  
He didn’t notice until the loud sounds of squawks made him pause.  
The Doctor looked up, realizing for the first time the danger he was in.  
Frustrated by the noise and the loss of their captees, the birds began to scratch at the floor, their razor sharp talons creating sparks of fire as they struck the stone.  
But before he could fully panic and begin to plan, the door of the Tardis flung open and there was River, fully clothed, smiling and confident and alive as ever.  
She leaned forward and kissed the startled Doctor, tossing a soft gray charcoal hoodie toward his chest.  
"Come on Sweetie, it’s time to get these fellas to migrate."  
"River, no." The Doctor grabbed her wrist gently but firmly, intending never to let her go.  
She flashed him a grin and shook her head. "Don’t worry, we aren’t needed for this flight. I’ve left everything all set."  
She stepped out and closed the door to the Tardis behind her. When the door shut and sealed, the Tardis sprung itself into action. At its front, the Tardis projected a far away image of light and the rising sun. Behind it, it projected a creature, a bird almost twice the size of the others, with the loveliest golden feathers and dark face, not to mention quite an impressive beak, standing preparing to take flight.  
River touched the door lovingly. "Please, take them to safety and come back for us soon." The engines whooshed their response, and the Tardis slowly took off, spinning low through the caverns and the crystal layer, and out into the night through the towers and toward the light side of Darillium.  
When the projected Weaver Bird took off with the Tardis, the other birds in the cave scrambled to follow.  
River smiled, pleased with her plan, and the Doctor, laughing joyously, picked her up and spun her around.  
"Look River! They’re on their way!"  
“They’ll have a nice time in the sun. And when the sun sets, hopefully they’ll remember to come back here and enjoy this side of the planet. By then hopefully they’ll teach the new generation and we can fix this whole sorry affair."  
"You’re brilliant!" He kissed his brilliant wife and when he was finished, he had succeeded in making her flustered.  
She laid her head on his shoulder.  
He turned seriously and asked. "How did you do that?"  
"Faithfully. I swear it. The Tardis as well. We weren’t doing anything wrong. I convinced her to help and she brought up projections on the screen, from there it was easy to plan what to do…”  
"No, I meant how did you get me to love you more.” He sighed and buried his face in her curls. Then he smiled to himself and placed a kiss at the top of her head. "She’s always liked you best River.”  
“Well I’m her child after all.” She turned and faced the Doctor,"I didn’t mean to frighten you by running into the Tardis...  
I promise you I won’t just fly off."  
“You saved the day River, you found the will to do the right thing."  
“All we can do is try. Even in a cave, surrounded by layers of planet and darkness, where only we will ever know the truth, we choose what’s right, because that’s what the Doctor does, that’s what you’ve taught me.”  
And he really did find some way to love her even more.  
____________________________________ 

The Doctor and River pulled their canoe back to the shore and retrieved their lamps.  
River explored the now abandoned roosting cave, and made notes of archeological findings from the cave drawings and carvings.  
They found the main chamber where the wind sang and the air vibrated so violently and loudly that they both had to run away from it laughing hysterically.  
They found more types of crystals and general wonders, and made love in a giant geode, at least 20 feet long, filled with translucent gypsum crystals that sparkled like diamonds. They stayed in there and slept and talked, as though they were alone on their own planet. River still had her temporary tattoo on her shoulder from their wedding, and the Doctor greatly admired it, in detail. Before leaving the geode, they both decided to leave their Oathing Stones behind, together for eternity. The Doctor had carved the word “Always” on his stone, and River had carved the word “Completely” on her stone.  
They got back in their canoe and paddled out of the caves, and when they emerged, into the darkness of the still Darillium night, there waiting for them at the edge of the stream, was the Tardis. She had lit the bulb on top to welcome them back.  
As they approached, carrying their paddles and canoe, her doors swung open to them. The Doctor paused, turned to River and said, “I’m glad we had this adventure.”  
She smiled back and responded, “I’m always glad Doctor, always and completely.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Look for more Doctor and River Song stories, every week! Next week: Part 7 - The Darillium Dream Snatchers!


End file.
